Party Shirt!

Using the iron-on vinyl from Expression Vinyl and my Cricut, I made Caileigh this shirt for her second birthday! I got the shirt for $1 at Wal-mart and the vinyl was pretty inexpensive (2.49 per color- and I have a ton left over). Sure beats the super-expensive shirts that I saw on Chasing Fireflies! If I thought she would wear it more than once, I might be tempted to buy the CF shirt, but Easter is only once a year!

This was $38 (yes, thirty-eight!!) on Chasing Fireflies:

My Shirt:

Total Cost:

Shirt- $1.00 (if it's hot out, I plan on cutting the sleeves)

Vinyl- $4.98 total

Ribbon- Free ( I had it in my stash)

GRAND TOTAL: $5.98

Linking up at : 

TaterTots & Jello

 

Here I am!

Eek! I’m so far behind with posting my Christmas Crafts! This weekend was crazy! On Saturday, we spent the day decorating. We went and cut down the tree at the tree farm up the road. I take this picture every year, and I’m sure Shane secretly loves it!

We hung the outside lights, which turned into Shane cleaning out the gutters. I got the bright idea to move the trellis that we got married under to the front yard. I had visions of it spanning the front walkway into our home. The whole thought of walking under the place we got married each time we entered our home was appealing to me. Unfortunately, I should have measured my vision before we (yes, “we”- I helped!) moved the mammoth creation from the backyard to the front. It’s way too big for our walkway. In defeat, we plopped it in the middle of the yard, awaiting relocation.

On Sunday, we took Caileigh on the Polar Express train ride. I have an absolute obsession with the Polar Express. It comes from elementary school when our principal use to play it over  the PA system on the last day of school before Christmas. The book is absolutely magical.

So after all of that, here are the 5 crafts I owe you!

# 2: Christmas Card Display board! I made this with an unfinished frame from Michaels, so Christmas scrapbook paper and some knobs we have around. I modeled it after this Creative Memories frame.

#3: Christmas Card Display Frame ! Another unfinished frame from Michaels. I got it on clearance awhile ago. I painted it with chalkboard paint and used chickenwire in the opening. The seasonal greetings can be erased and I can reuse it for birthdays!

#4: My ugly flowerpot tree that I secretly love!!

#5: Placemat Pillow: I got these placements a couple years ago and used them on our pub table that only had two chairs. That table is now gone and I searched high and low for more of these placemats. I couldn’t find anymore, but couldn’t bear the thought of these adorable rustic snowman not coming out for Christmas. I had some scrap material and sewed (BY HAND! My machine is caput!) them into a pillow. Cute, huh?

#6: I made this garland last year. I just got out holiday shapes and embellished them with buttons that my grandma had given me in the past.

As I am posting this, I am realizing that having 25 crafts (19 more!) by Christmas is going to be rough! I may expand and count some of my culinary adventures as crafts.. or have some guest posters… or take a day off work to craft!?!?!? Or maybe have an unexpected snowday to sit in my little room and create. ( I live for snowdays!)

Thanks for reading J  

25 Crafts of Christmas.. # 1

I know, it's not very "Christmas-y", but I've been seeing these all  blogland and I love it. I got an unfinished wood frame and painted it brown. Then I cut out some flowers from some scrapbook paper and modpodged them on. I compiled a list of "rules" for our family. I used a piece of twine to hang it by.

 I hung it by our front door... Let me know what you think! 

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Hope your Halloween is devilish!!

I made this costume for my daughter. It cost me about $5!! The ears and pitchfork are from the Dollar Store . Caileigh tends to not leave headbands in, so I cut the ears off the band and glued them onto clips that I clipped in her pig tails. The tutu is made from a roll of red and black tulle. I loved the costume, Caileigh resorts to tears when she sees it!

The photo was taken by my friend Kathy.. She's wonderful- Check her out! Kathleen Hertel Photography

 The rest of the pictures were taken by me!

 

Happy Halloween :) 

Fall Decor, Finally!

Welcome to our home! I love this wreath!! I got it a few years ago at a craft fair. Perfect combo of spooky & whimsy!

Entryway- Mums, pumpkins and hay.. Doesn't get any more fall-like!

Mantle.

Homemade candy jars!

Homemade Christmas

I am planning on making a lot of my gifts this year.. I am going to keep a running lists of links for ideas!

Homemade Marshmallows (has anyone ever tried these? I'm thinking of adding crushed peppermints to the top of them)

Homemade Hot Cocoa

Mugs

I'm thinking of combining the above into a cute little gift basket with some tasty cookies!

Delicious Popcorn

Too Cute!

Halloween Subway Art

 I have seen these floating around blogland, and thought I'd give it a try!

I used each of my cricut cartridges to cut out the letters!

Rylee's "Utter"ly Amazing Party

My friend Keri just threw an barnyard party for her daughter, Rylee. Keri's attention to detail was impeccable.

Keri found a company that had a barnyard theme mini bouncer!

This was my favorite part! Keri got risers that had wagon wheels on each side (I wish I took more pics!) off of Ebay. There were a ton of items with adorable custom signs. Each child got "money" and could buy their party favors which they put in to...

...metal buckets with a bandana liner. Keri embroidered the liners with each kids name. This totally put me over the edge with wanting my own machine!

All of the drinks were served from the lemonade stand... 

in adorable mason jars

Dessert was cake, cupcakes, pies and cookies- OH MY! 

Here's my little one enjoying her cupcake!! 

Great job, Keri!! 

Repurposing an old plate...

Step # 1: Old Plate

Step # 2: Spray paint with Krylon's "Hammered Metal". It gives it a cool effect

Step # 3: Tape edges and spray with chalkboard spray paint..Forgot to take a pic of that step

Step 4: Voila! Chalkboard plate!

Porch Swing..

We have a great swing on our porch, but it was looking a little "blah"... I had a spare 30 minutes while the baby napped, so I whipped this up with some leftover burlap and a stencil I made with my Cricut.

I think it needs more color. I might make covers for the brown pillows... or maybe paint them with some fabric paint. Ya just never know. 

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So there was this wall...

When you walk in our front door, you walk into a living room. The problem is, that's about all we did in it- walk through it to the kitchen or the den. It was sort of a dark room and we rarely used it... Since everyone we know seems to enjoy piling into the kitchen, we decided to make that room part of the kitchen!
Here's the before:

(what you saw when you walked in the front door)

(From the kitchen side- I forgot to snap the pic before we started emptying cabinets)

IN PROGRESS:

The hubby and Handyman Al working!

Stay tuned for the grand reveal! 

Summer Project # 1:

eclectic entry design

Loving this set up from Pottery Barn. Unfortunately, I can't afford Pottery Barn, but I can afford chalkboard paint and some hooks. I already have the bench (well, not THAT bench- but one from a local woodworker)! Stay tuned for my version

Now Open for Business!!!!!!!!!

PLease check out my NEW Etsy Store! More items will be coming soon :)


http://www.etsy.com/shop/carrienregan